Los Angeles. Film editor Robert decides to break up with his girlfriend Mary, since he thinks they are incompatible. At first, Robert enjoys his alone time at home, but quickly starts to become nervous and unstable. He buys jogging clothes to run. He calls a woman he knows to go out on a date, but when he picks her up in his car, he suddenly decides to cancel the date. At the studio, he is finishing editing a movie with George Kennedy. Robert phones Mary and they make up. On a love trip in a cabin, he admits he found a costly phone bill to New York at her place, accusing her of meeting another man. They argue, but then Robert proposes her.
Albert Brooks’ second feature length film as a director, “Modern Romance” is a semi-successful depiction of indecisive people who cannot make up their mind, who are neither happy with their partner nor happy with their status of loneliness. “Modern Romance” is more personal than it is cinematically satisfying. Brooks isn’t able to craft an engaging or intriguing storyline, but instead presents a loose ‘slice-of-life’ set of vignettes with jokes that are of varying degree of inspiration. One good one is the opening, where the protagonist Robert announces his breakup with Mary by comparing their relationship to a dead-end: "You never heard of a no-win situtation? Vietnam? This?" In another, Robert is driving in his car, but whenever he changes a radio station, each one plays a romantic song, much to his grudge. However, Robert is too coiled and nervous character to truly gain sympathy. The movie editing subplot is rather routine, though it has a neat cameo from the legendary director James L. Brooks as his co-worker. The ending also feels unsatisfactory vague and abrupt. Take away the style, creativity and ingenuity from “Annie Hall” and you get “Modern Romance”, though it is still a good film with honest observations about modern problems with relationships.
Grade:++
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